Tennis: Djokovic confronts greatest challenge as clock ticks

PARIS – Twelve months after his latest bid to complete a career Grand Slam was thwarted, Novak Djokovic targets an elusive French Open title with time and history threatening to conspire against him.

Novak Djokovic will be playing Roland Garros for a 12th time where he remains the overwhelming favourite to secure a trophy

The world number one was left in tears in 2015 when Stan Wawrinka unleashed a battery of single-handed backhand winners to all corners of Court Philippe Chatrier on his way to a shock Paris title.

Djokovic turns 29 on Sunday and will be playing Roland Garros for a 12th time where he remains the overwhelming favourite to secure a trophy which would also place him halfway to the first calendar Grand Slam since 1969.

John McEnroe also flopped, the four-time US Open and three-time Wimbledon winner having to console himself with a runners-up spot in Paris in 1984.

Djokovic, with 11 majors under his belt, has come closer than all of them. He has been runner-up three times and a semi-finalist on four occasions.

His record in 2016 reads 37 wins and just three defeats although two of those came on clay — against Jiri Vesely in a freak Monte Carlo opening-round exit and a loss to Andy Murray in last weekend’s Rome final.

Djokovic starts in Paris against Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun, the world number 100.

He is seeded to face Tomas Berdych in the last-eight before a potential semi-final blockbuster against nine-time champion Rafael Nadal in what would be the 50th meeting between the two superstars.

“I still feel like I have plenty of more years ahead of me, which gives me more comfort in terms of opportunities I’m going to have at the title of Roland Garros, which releases more pressure for me this year,” said the top seed.

“I don’t try to approach them from a point of view of being obsessed with this tournament.”

World number two Murray is shaping up as Djokovic’s greatest threat.

He may be 8,000 points behind in the world rankings, but the former US Open and Wimbledon winner has developed a taste for clay relatively late in his career.

His 6-3, 6-3 win over Djokovic at the Foro Italico came on his 29th birthday.

– Murray threat –

Murray has steadily improved in Paris with three semi-final runs in his last four appearances, losing a five-set epic to Djokovic in 2015.

He faces 37-year-old Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek in the first round with a potential semi-final against Wawrinka.

“Qualifiers have played three matches. That’s tough. They have won three matches here. They are probably feeling pretty good about their conditions and comfortable on the courts,” said Murray.

Nadal was promoted to the fourth seeding after Roger Federer withdrew from the tournament with injury ending a run of 65 consecutive Grand Slam appearances stretching back to 1999.

Written off after a 2015 campaign saw him endure his worst season in a decade, the 29-year-old Spaniard won in Monte Carlo for the ninth time and then clinched the Barcelona crown to equal Guillermo Vilas’s record of 49 career clay-court titles.

A semi-final run in Madrid and quarter-final spot in Rome — where it took Murray and Djokovic respectively to halt him — illustrated his enduring power.

Nadal starts his French Open against big-serving Sam Groth of Australia.

With his 30th birthday just around the corner, Nadal has arguably the toughest draw — Italy’s Fabio Fognini, who came back from two sets down to beat him at the US Open last year, is a possible third round opponent.

Rising Austrian Dominic Thiem, the man who knocked Federer out in Rome, is lying in wait in the round of 16.

“I’m not feeling old. On court it is true that I had a lot of years here on the tour, but in terms of mentality and in terms of life I feel myself young,” said Nadal. “I don’t think about going to be 30.”

Defending champion Wawrinka, 30, has endured a roller-coaster clay-court season — a quarter-final run in Monte Carlo followed by an opening loss in Madrid and just one victory in Rome.

World number six Kei Nishikori of Japan remains an outside hope.

The 26-year-old was runner-up in Barcelona to Nadal and then lost semi-finals to Djokovic in Madrid and Rome.

But Nishikori’s record at the French Open is modest with a quarter-final spot last year representing his best performance.